Carallel, a digital health startup that provides support tools for family caregivers, has landed $8.2 million in a Series A.
Carallel has a team of advocates that can be reached by phone, email or chat for family caregivers who are taking care of loved ones at home. The company contracts with health plans to then help with their members who rely on family caregivers.
The Chicago-based startup also has a digital health platform — called MyCareDesk — that can be used to find in-home care services and help set up financial plans for members.
When Shara Cohen, Carallel’s CEO, joined the company in early 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had just introduced a supplemental benefit for caregiver support.
That’s when health plans started to realize there was an opportunity to better engage and connect with caregivers, she told Home Health Care News.
The startup used its relationship with Florida Blue to launch a pilot that eventually caught the eye of other health plans around the country.
“That multiplication really started to catch the eye of investors who are thinking about this space,” Cohen said. “I think one thing that has come out of the pandemic is a more general awareness of caregiving and the impact that that has on family lives. Whether it’s the sandwich generation that is caregiving for aging parents or how quickly our communities are aging, there’s a dependence that people have on family caregivers. Those forces sort of crashed into each other in a way that has propelled us forward.”
With the funding, Carallel plans to expand by providing more connection points for caregivers through its tech-enabled service. It also plans to invest in its digital platform and into more programs and resources that improve outcomes for health plan members.
“Because we are so focused on health care, it’s becoming increasingly clear that caregivers can impact performance, quality improvement and STARS ratings for health plans,” Cohen said. “We’re investing a lot in the targeted programs that we deliver to proactively help organizations address those performance opportunities.”
Carallel currently works with over 400,000 Medicare Advantage and commercially insured members and caregivers across the country.
The funding round was led by FCA Venture Partners, with other participants including 450 Ventures, Create Health Ventures, Gratitude Railroad, Loud Capital and Wanxiang Healthcare Investments.
“I’ve always recognized and been interested in this hidden workforce that is the friends, family, neighbors and loved ones that step in when people are going through health care journeys,” Cohen said. “Whether those are acute journeys or prolonged journeys, there is this unsung group of heroes that are supporting their loved ones in really fraught circumstances. I’ve been really inspired to work with a team that is focused on how we help to support those folks and enable them to care better for themselves and for their loved ones.”
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